* Results show centre-right wins majority and can oust Fico
* Fico says he is victim of dirty tricks campaign
* Budget, Hungary, corruption dominate vote
* For a TABLE with partial results, click on []
By Martin Santa and Michael Winfrey
BRATISLAVA, June 12 (Reuters) - Centre-right parties won a
majority in Slovakia's election on Sunday, giving them a chance
to oust leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico with a coalition
designed to cut the budget deficit and repair ties with Hungary.
While voters chose the grouping of economic liberals whose
reforms led Slovakia into the European Union in 2004 and drew
billions of foreign investment, Fico retained his status as the
most popular politician in the euro zone's poorest country.
Fico, loved for a tough leadership style favouring average
Slovaks over big businesses, won the biggest single share of the
vote with 36.2 percent for his leftist SMER party, according to
results from two-thirds of polling stations.
But the results gave 77 of parliament's 150 seats to four
centre-right and ethnic Hungarian parties. Two exit polls showed
the opposition could end up with as many as 91 seats.
The conservative SDKU, which introduced a flat tax rate,
sold major state firms, and overhauled the pension and welfare
sectors when it ruled from 1998 to 2006, was second with 15.1
percent of the vote.
It hopes to form a coalition with the Christian Democrats
(KDH), the newly formed liberal Freedom and Solidarity party
(SaS), and the ethnic Hungarian Most-Hid party.
Analysts say a centre-right grouping would be better placed
to cut a budget deficit that hit 6.8 percent of gross domestic
product last year to a target of 3 percent in 2012.
"Any mash-up is better than Fico," said SaS leader Richard
Sulik. He said he was ready to join as many parties as needed to
create a government.
Fico may still try to form a government because the first
chance traditionally goes to the biggest party, but the
opposition parties have ruled out joining forces with SMER.
"SMER is ready for both alternatives, to be in the
government or to be in the opposition," said SMER spokeswoman
Katarina Klizanova Rysova.
CONFRONTATIONAL STYLE
Business and the opposition accuse Fico, whose popularity
was driven by a generous welfare agenda, of wasting public funds
and polarising politics with a confrontational style.
Mainstream media, which Fico says are biased, have endorsed
right-wing parties and called for a return to the type of reform
that made Slovakia the EU's fastest-growing member in 2007.
"Fico will try (to lure other parties) but the trenches have
been dug so deep, although only over the past few weeks," said
political analyst Samuel Abraham. "He has almost zero chance."
In an election two weeks ago in the Czech Republic, Fico's
close ally, Social Democrat Jiri Paroubek, won the most votes
but three centre-right parties gained a majority.
Analysts say the centre-right grouping is probably the best
to fight corruption and to improve frosty relations with
neighbouring Hungary.
There have been strains over the rights of Slovakia's half a
million Hungarian minority and ties with Hungary deteriorated
further after the far-right Slovak National Party joined Fico's
government in 2006.
In Hungary in April, right-winger Viktor Orban won an
election on a ticket that included fighting for the rights of
Hungarian minorities abroad.
Slovakia's export-reliant economy, which shrank by 4.7
percent last year, has started recovering and the EU forecasts
2.7 percent growth this year, the bloc's fastest along with
Poland.
Slovaks adopted the euro in 2009 and, with living standards
at just 72 percent of the EU average, have questioned whether
they should help richer debt-laden euro zone countries.
SDKU and SaS have said that if they won power they would
refuse to pay Slovakia's 800-million-euro share of the EU
bailout for Greece.
SMER fell back in opinion polls last week after Slovak media
published a tape recording suggesting it had received illegal
funding in the 2002 election campaign.
The party denies charges it did not account for some of its
funding in 2002 and accuses rivals of illegal smear tactics.
(Editing by Ralph Gowling)
